This invention relates to cassette tape recorders, and more particularly, to a drive mechanism for use in compact cassette tape recorders such as car stereo equipment.
A compact cassette has two reel hubs on which a tape is wound. When a cassette is left unattended, reel hubs tend to rotate due to vibration or the like, loosening the tape. If a cassette with its tape slack is loaded in a tape recorder and playback operation is immediately started without pulling in such slack, the tape often twines round a capstan, disabling the playback operation as well as breaking the tape.
It is desirable to pull in the slack of a tape by rotating a reel hub before the playback operation is started. Several mechanisms for pulling in the slack of a tape have been proposed heretofore. For example, one reel base is rotated to pull in the tape slack until the other reel base begins to rotate. This rotation of the other reel base is electrically detected to change the recorder into a playback state. Such removal of tape slack is time consuming. Since a device for detecting the rotation of the other reel base must be incorporated in a tape stop detecting mechanism, a special circuit is required to detect the beginning of reel base rotation. Furthermore, if tape slack pulling-in operation is once effected, any additional pulling-in can not be done automatically during transition from a fast forward or rewind operation to a playback operation.
Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide a drive mechanism for use in a cassette tape recorder wherein two reel bases are rotated in opposite tape take-up directions to pull in the slack of a tape immediately.